Join us in conversation with Hafiz translator Peter Booth to celebrate this incredible illuminated collection of poetry with translations by Booth, Coleman Barks, Robert Bly, Meher Baba, Omid Safi, and others, merged with the luminous art of Michael and Saliha Green. Michael Green will join in for the audience Q & A after Peter's presentation.
“Hafiz is without peer!” exclaimed Goethe. Known as “The Tongue of the Hidden Mysteries,” Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafiz of Shiraz, the most revered of the Persian poets, poured forth mystic verse so sublime it touched the hearts of kings and commoners alike.
Hafiz’s poems of intimate divine love spread through the East in his lifetime, then into the West, influencing such luminaries as Emerson, Brahms, Queen Victoria, Nietzsche, and Garcia Lorca. Today, nearly 700 years after his death, the unmatched genius and bold wit of Hafiz continues to ignite hearts and intoxicate souls everywhere.
The Illuminated Hafiz, a follow-on from the perennial-seller The Illuminated Rumi by Coleman Barks and Michael Green, is a stunning contemporary presentation in the tradition of classical Persian Illuminated manuscripts, which reveals why this 13th century poet's verse endures as timeless spiritual guidance in the Middle East, and why Hafiz's sublime words of light continue to grow in popularity in the West and throughout the world.
“I as the white lily and you Beloved as the red rose, we were in pure companionship,
and whatever was in your heart was spoken by my tongue.” —Hafiz (tr. Booth)
“Don't worry about livelihood or property. Be a subsistence for your friends.
A sitar string drawn tight, a drum. Be almost empty, and the dreg drinkers will gather to taste.” —Hafiz (tr. Barks)
“Until he takes me to his lips like a reed all the advice of the world passes by my ear like the wind.” —Hafiz (tr. Booth)
PETER BOOTH, native of Chevy Chase, is co-author of Dante I Hafiz, and member of the DC area Iranian Culture Association (Kanoon Iran), He studied Sanskrit and sacred Indian texts at Georgetown University in his teens, received a B.A. in English Literature from Bard College, and attended Harvard Graduate School in Persian Language and Literature, studying with Annemarie Schimmel and Wheeler Thackston. He then studied studied Persian Literature at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, on a scholarship from the Shah of Iran. For 32 years he was a resident in Avatar Meher Baba’s home, Meherabad, in rural India, where he helped build water and electrical systems, roads, and carried out extensive afforestation. He’s currently completing a detailed study of the poetry of Hafiz, The Incomparable Hafiz.
MICHAEL GREEN is a fine artist who has devoted his skills to creating works that evoke the contemplative and sacred traditions. He is the illustrator of The Illuminated Rumi with Coleman Barks, The Illuminated Prayer. The Unicornis Manuscripts, and many other books. He has created art and experiential sculpture gardens for hospitals and healing gardens around the country. Michael lives with his wife Saliha in Pennsylvania. Together they host concerts and art shows at the Green Barn Studios. His current projects include The Afterculture, and A New Book of Kells. Visit him at michaelgreenarts.com